The Portland Urban Farm Project has formed. The Portland Urban Farm Project’s mission is:

• To grow food locally within neighborhoods
• To share resources
• To build community

Citizens are rising up all over the country, taking n their local city council for the right to raise chickens, goats, and other small farm animals on their property. The latest is Ypsilanti, Michigan.

The nonprofit Growing Hope is working with interested city residents and leaders to renew discussion of what Amanda Edmonds hopes will be changes in Ypsilanti city ordinances.

“We’re not neutral,” said Edmonds, founder and executive director of the group that runs the downtown farmers market, community garden and education programs in Ypsilanti. “We’re advocates for urban agriculture. Our role is to disseminate information about best practices and the experience in other communities.”

Click Here to read more.

Here is a great article in Suite101.com about how to grow asparagus from seed:

Click Here

William Edward Cureton, II is known throughout Alabama, and beyond, as “Captain Compost”, and the purpose of his website is to encourage all gardeners from around the world to enjoy
and experiment with the amazing modern world of organic and sustainable gardening.

William is one of the main authors of the organic gardening forum FAQ page on GardenWeb.com.
He is the moderator on the composting forum on DirtDoctor.com. The “Captain” is also very popular on the Rodale Organic Gardening website forums.

Visit Captain Compost.

Urban Farmer is an eco-friendly garden and flower seed company. They use recycled magazines to hand package all of their fruit, vegetable, herb and flower seeds. They use only the highest quality heirloom seeds in our packets. Check out the entire selection of garden seeds at:

www.ufseeds.com.

Farmer Greg showed up at Blogger Dave’s house to deliver a solar oven. While there he showed Dave how to prune a new peach tree:

Now here’s a great idea.

Almost every bill you receive comes with a return envelope.  What if the original envelope could re re-used as the return envelope?

That’s just what EcoEnvelopes have done: Created a reusable 2-way envelop, .manufactured exclusively with FSC and SFI certified papers, contain up to 100% PCW content (post consumer waste), and use environmentally responsible inks and window films. ecoEnvelopes are US Postal Service approved, they work with existing high-speed insertion, remittance and postal processing equipment

Read more on EcoEnvelopes website

Most urban farmers confine their agricultural efforts to vegetables, fruit, and the occasional egg-laying chicken. But on her small plot in Oakland, California, Novella Carpenter has raised bees, goats, rabbits, geese, and turkey, among other fauna.

Culinate interviews Novella here.

 

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There’s a recent story in Forbes who makes a very nice living dumpster-diving for high-tech garbage and then reselling it.

When he travels overseas, he is always sure to carry over a suitcase with a thousand or so British power cables (server manufacturers include both U.S. and U.K. cables with their products, so every data center regularly throws away the foreign leads). He sells them in London for a pound each, financing his round-trip airfare and hotel with his e-waste arbitrage.

Click Here to read the Forbes article.

I don’t have it.

My HOA prohibits clotheslines. Yours probably does too, yet electric clothes dryers account for 5.8% of all electricity used in the home.

There’s a movement afoot to bring back the clothesline and the LA TImes has an article about it:

Click Here to read the article

In places where the practice is banned as an unsightly nuisance to neighbors, right-to-dry activists and blogging eco-moms are forming an alliance. Their cause: to reduce energy consumption and to call upon sunlight rather than bleach to get those whites even whiter.

There’s even a blog: laundrylist.org.

The CW Network is looking for environmentally conscious video enthusiasts interested in potentially winning $10,000 in a new “Green Your World” contest as part of its on-going Free 2 Be Green campaign. As part of this new contest, viewers are encouraged to produce their own video (maximum 2 minutes in length) explaining how they are actively working to “green their world” and upload that video to www.cwtv.com/greenyourworld. All submissions must be received by Feb. 16, 2009 to qualify.

From all of the submissions, 5 lucky finalists will be selected to each produce a series of 4 (one per week) video blogs (or vlogs) about their contributions to the environment and making their communities a better place for everyone. One of the 5 finalists will ultimately be selected as the overall winner of the contest, earning the $10,000 prize and the chance to be featured online at cwtv.com and possibly be featured on-air on The CW Network during Earth Week.

For complete details, guidelines, rules and restrictions regarding the “Green Your World” sweepstakes, please go to www.cwtv.com/greenyourworld.

Great article in Energy Boomer about reducing the energy use of your waterbed:

Click Here to read it.

Great article in EcoGeek about the growing use of wind and other renewable energy sources in Antacrtica.

Belgiums’s Elizabeth research station hopes to be the first to rely solely on wind and solar power, England’s Rothera base is installing solar thermal panels for heating water and air, Japan’s Syowa base is already using solar power and Australia’s Mawson station has been using wind turbines since 2003.

Click Here to read the article.

San Francisco has announced that it will pilot a bike-sharing program similar to that currently in place in Paris, France.

The pilot program will include 50 bikes located at five stations on non-city property (as required by a Court injunction until environmental review of the City’s Bicycle Plan is complete). Each station will have either nine or 12 bikes and will provide approximately 50 percent more bicycle parking slots to help ensure proper distribution between available bikes and open, available drop-off spots. The stations will be in the Financial District, Mission Bay, the Presidio, Civic Center and the City College campus.

Click here to read the entire article on Treehugger.

This is aphoto of a former bank vault in Tokyo that has been converted into a semi-automated urban farm.

Click Here to read the story.

AZ Sustainability has this article about a new Farmers Market coming to Phoenix January 31.

I also just found out about a new Farmer’s Market in Downtown Glendale on Saturday mornings, on Glendale Ave next to the Mad Hatter.

Our Renewable Nation is possibly the most adorable project ever conceived to advocate renewable energy. It’s an eco-video project helmed by the McCullough family, who are traveling across the country in a vegetable oil powered VW Beetle. They’re visiting wind farms, solar installations, talking to companies developing sustainable technologies, and documenting all their interviews and travels on video.

Click Here to read more.

When I was a little kid I made a lot of things from cereal boxes. My favorite cereal was Wheaties and when the box was empty I always found a use for it.

I found this great little tip on Lighter Footstep today:

 

ure, a lot of breakfast cereal comes out of bags these days. But don’t toss those cereal boxes when you have them — they make sturdy (and free!) mailing envelopes. Just cut them apart, turn them inside out, and use a little tape. You’re off to the Post Office. Thanks toTwitter user Lydia Krupinski of Pierogi Picnic for today’s tip.

From the online edition of The New York Times:

In 2005 H. Scott Lee, Walmart’s CEO, challenged a roomful of Walmart executives. “Tell me why I should care about an endangered mouse in Arizona?”, he asked. He presented his colleagues with a radical option — the “choice” that gave the meeting its name — encouraging them to adopt a sustainability program to remake the entire company, from the materials used to build stores to the light bulbs stocked on its shelves. Although participants were conflicted, a vote on the initiative was unanimous: Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer and biggest buyer of manufactured goods, would go green.

Under Mr. Scott, who is retiring this month at the age of 59, the company that democratized consumption in the United States — enabling working-class families to buy former luxuries like inexpensive flat-screen televisions, down comforters and porterhouse steaks — has begun to democratize environmental sustainability.

Today, the roughly 200 million customers who pass through Wal-Mart’s doors each year buy fluorescent light bulbs that use up to 75 percent less electricity than incandescent bulbs, concentrated laundry detergent that uses 50 percent less water and prescription drugs that contain 50 percent less packaging.

Click Here to read the entire story.